I had the chance to play and preview this game during my visit to E3. During my play time at that event, Kill Team seemed like a cool twist on the 40,000 franchise, which up ’til now had only been used as fiction for a few RTS games and a couple of forgettable shoot ‘em ups. So how did it end up?

THE GOOD

Cool classes

The Space Marines are tough dudes and the classes you can pick from show it. Each has its own pros and cons, some favor ranged fighting, while others like to get in close and melee the crap out of Orks. There are some twists in that ying/yang relation though, one class in particular serves as a support unit, with its own special power up in the form of a deployable turret. I enjoyed jumping around the classes but ended up sticking with the guy that carries around a huge rocket launcher. Call it ‘playing it safe’! You can even pick which sect your space marine is from, which boils down to which color his armor is, really.

Somewhat hectic gameplay… but fun?

Kill Team is played pretty much the same way you would play a game like Robotron. You’re constantly flanked by attacking Orks that charge at you with no regards to anything. There are a few different types of enemies, including bosses that try to vary things up a bit but the main thing you’ll be doing in this game is walking back and laying down the lead on foes. The few power-ups that you can uncover for your weapons help out your odds of surviving the onslaugh and are the basic offerings you’d expect to see in a game like this: shields, weapon buffs and health pick-ups. There’s also a few perk upgrades you can earn which add a few options for you to customize your marine with as well as two or three new guns that are unlocked as you progress through the game.

THE BAD

Can’t see where I’m going or doing!

It’s really tough when a developer tries something different or stylish within an already well developed genre. Although Kill Team is a competent dual stick shooter, there are times where I didn’t know where the hell I was going thanks to some insane camera shifts, tilts and angles. Not to mention the overuse of slow motion during certain kills. What’s even more annoying, you can’t skip cutscenes either, and those are pretty darn long to begin with. If you die during a stage, get ready to watch these over and over again.

Grabbing a friend to play… locally!

How are we still getting local only multiplayer in downloadable games these days? Sure, playing locally with a friend is fun but the option to take things online is vital for a game like this. Tough luck, you won’t see it in this game!

Over in a whim…

Kill Team’s only five levels long. If you want to stretch the game out a little, you can go after the scattered collectible aquila badges hidden throughout levels, but beyond that, there’s only a handful of survival stages that take place in enclosed parts of the campaign stages. You’re able to battle friends over leaderboards in regards to how long they can last in this mode. Beyond that, there’s very little to do in this game after you’re doing with the “story” mode. There isn’t even the option to rank up the difficulty.

THE UGLY

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team isn’t a bad game. It’s a pretty competent twin stick shooter. That’s the problem. It’s just competent. There’s a metric ton of better shooting games out there in the download space. It’s a saturated market and if you don’t try to set yourself apart from the pack, you’re doomed to be forgotten. There’s a small tie-in to the actual Space Marine game set for release later this month in the form of an unlockable power sword. That’s it. Emperor or not, Kill Team is just another forgettable game that you’ll be done with in a weekend.

The zombie apocalypse is here (yet again) and as either one of the last survivors who happens to be immune to the plague, it’s up to you to chase down a solution to the problem, or at least escape it.

The Good

Looks great… mostly

Housemarque, the development house behind Dead Nation, has done a great job with the visuals. Even though the environments are relatively repetitive, the great use of lighting helps convey a ton of atmosphere. Since the game mostly takes place at night, most of the time the only light source you have is the flashlight your character is carrying, which lights the streets and roads you run through in real-time, along with the many threats you’ll be fighting with.

Shooting zombies is fun!

The weapon variety is pretty extensive and very fun to use. Your primary rifle has unlimited ammo but everything else depends on ammunition pickups that are hidden throughout levels. All guns can be upgraded at checkpoint stores, where they can also be replenished. The saw launcher is easily my favorite weapon out of the bunch.

Smart online features

Any competitive downloadable game nowadays has an online mode and Dead Nation is no different. It does throw a little more than online co-op in the form of a leaderboard that takes into account your geographical location, thus taking the competition internationally, country-vs-country, with tallies on how many zombies have been destroyed and the amount of points.

The Bad

Repetitive… repetitive… repe… okay, you get the point

Dead Nation for the most part, is a one trick pony. Zombies come out of just about anywhere during the stages. Some battles take place in gated areas that are only opened after everything has been killed. This happens way too often, multiple times during a single stage. The enemy variety doesn’t help much.

Tired enemy designs

If you’ve played Left4Dead 2 or any other kind of game, or watched a lot of zombie movies, you know what to expect from Dead Nation. Your garden variety ghoul is your most common foe, along with fat zombies that explodes, little guys that like to nibble on you from up close and even hulking aberrations that take way too many bullets to kill. All of them look pretty boring too, which doesn’t help much.

Hard to shoot what you can’t really see

Since you’re dependant on your flashlight to see where they’re coming from and shoot them, things more often than not turn into mayhem. Mayhem is great for this game’s premise but not in this fashion. It’s just plain hard to see enemies approaching due to how pulled out the camera is and how narrow your view and aiming range is. This gets really, really bad the further you get in the game, where new, stronger and faster monsters are thrown into the mix.

Glitches… why did it have to be glitches?!

Remember the fun I mentioned having with guns and upgrading them? Well, the game has this annoying issue where it just forgets that you upgraded a gun and you’re forced to expend more money to reacquire them. This happened more than once for me, and let me tell you… it’s frustrating. Playing online also has its fair share of issues – if your buddy or random partner decides to jump out of the game, you’ll be out of luck, or in this case, of level progress.

Difficulty in its faults

I can easily commend a game if it’s a fair challenge to get through. Dead Nation isn’t the case. Its problems make it much more difficult than it has to. It’s tough to tell how much damage you’re taking due to the awful hit detection and in situations where you’re swarmed (read: the entire game) that can be reason to just stop playing out of frustration.

The Ugly?

It’s extremely hard to recommend Dead Nation among the many alternatives in the twin-stick shooter genre. Not only is it problematic, but also expensive, at 15 USD on PSN. If you’re after some undead carnage, look elsewhere, preferrably very far away from Dead Nation.

Editor’s note: This copy of Dead Nation was very graciously provided by my friends at GameRevolution.com. thanks, guys.

Double Fine’s Stacking hit the marketplace a couple of months back with a bang. Most publications fell in love with the cutesy art style and lite puzzle-oriented gameplay. I for one didn’t like it as much but when I heard about its upcoming downloadable content, I decided to give it another shot.

The Lost Hobo King has Charlie coming to his friend Levi’s aid when the hobo community discovers remains of the long lost hobo kingdom of Camel Toe. Before settling in and crowning a new king, though, Levi and Charlie must find the long lost trio of blacksmiths who can forge it.

The Good

Personality aplenty!

If you liked Stacking‘s unique art style and humor, there’s a ton more to fall for here. Every single doll has its own little trick up its sleeve, even though most of those are completely useless in terms of gameplay and work more like an amusement. You’ll still be able to jump and stack into dolls in order to complete an entirely new set of hi-jinks too.

Fits in well

The Lost Hobo King fits in well with the main Stacking adventure. Even though it is clearly an “editor’s cut” level, with a contained story that doesn’t bleed into the rest of the game, it works well to expand the game beyond the whole child labor narrative, giving us something a little more lighthearted to digest. There’s more backstory involving the more obscure sect of characters from the original, the hobos, which is a nice touch.

Somewhat better pacing…

Sure, this is probably due to the smaller dimensions of the world this time around, since there are basically two sets of environments that are interconnected for you to explore. But… in some ways, the objectives are a little more clear and straightforward this time around which in Stacking‘s case, that’s a benefit due to how loose all the story threads felt in the original content.

The Bad

Ridiculously short

The Lost Hobo King is short. You can easily complete it in a single sitting, in about 40 minutes. There are only three objectives to complete before you reach the end. In case you are a trophies/achievement junkie, you might be able to squeeze an extra hour out of the game in search of all the unique dolls, hi-jinks and alternative quest solutions and even then, there’s very little to be done in this DLC.

It’s still Stacking!

Bear with me on this. Yes, I admitted to being somewhat intrigued by the prospect of more Stacking when I heard about this DLC. That was with the vain hopes that Double Fine would somehow turn the game around and make it a little more exciting. The gameplay in Stacking and in consequence, its DLC, feels slow and boring most of the times. Even though this is a plus for younger players just getting into games, it’s clear that Double Fine has its sights on the older demographic as well with the game’s witty writing and sometimes dark themes. Sadly, I didn’t find myself gripped by the gameplay, even though I really, really like the setting, characters and art style.

The ugly?

The Lost Hobo King does a serviceable job of giving (a tinsy, little) more game, but its main problem though is that it’s still Stacking, carrying the same problems the original game had. It doesn’t really add much, other than a new more contained setting to explore and a handful of new objectives to quickly fulfil.

Things certainly get off to a positive start with Hasbro confirming War for Cyberton as official canon in the Transformers mythology. The story is set before the events of season one of the Generation 1 (G1) TV show, once again pitting the heroic Autobots against the nefarious Decepticons. However, with the vast time difference things are slightly disparate so you’ll get to see how many of the Transformers met each other, and how they changed before their time on Earth. You’ll encounter the first meeting between Megatron and Starscream as their complicated relationship begins its rocky path, and even see how Optimus earned his heralded Prime status. It’s certainly an interesting look at early Transformers lore that should satisfy hardcore fans of the series and those with a nostalgic fondness for the franchise. And the narrative does a good job propelling the action forward, portrayed like a series of the TV show or even another animated movie.

Though, perhaps the best part about War for Cybertron’s story is the characters themselves. They may not have much depth or complexity, but each Transformer has more personality than we’ve seen from the franchise in years. During each level they’ll constantly talk to one another, trading the kind of amusing banter we’ve seen from Gears of War’s COGs over the past few years and referencing throwbacks to the original TV series that fans will eat up. The voice actors do a good job with the work they’re given, especially Peter Cullen – as usual – and the way gears and pistons will shift and re-adjust on each characters body really helps bring these recognisable robotic mechanisms to life. Even the steel world of Cyberton has its own distinct flair, even if influences like Blade Runner are often times evident. It’s a truly gigantic world, filled with luminous structures, large-scale space stations, over-arching highways and ancient archaeological sites, all shifting and consistently working like you’d imagine a mechanical world would. And all of this is littered with drop ships, laser fire and a multitude of robots fighting and transforming in and out of their different forms. It really gives the impression of a large scale war that’s so far been omitted from previous Transformers games.

And that’s complemented by the Autobot and Decepticon campaigns. Each one fuels this impression of large scale war as objectives task you with restarting powerful space stations, defending areas from capture and aiding the skies with AA guns. The war between each faction is an ongoing struggle and you’ll get to experience both sides of the conflict as you split time between Megatron, Soundwave, Brawl and so on; and Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide and the rest of the Autobots. You can choose to play through each campaign simultaneously, or do it chronologically – starting with the Decepticons – giving the story a much better sense of cohesion. Though, through both campaigns, you’ll spend the majority of your time shooting a whole bunch of robots. War for Cyberton takes plenty of inspiration from recent shooters, notably Gears of War and Halo. The third-person shooting has a distinct Gear of War feel to it, so it’s very satisfying, if a tad derivative. There are myriad weapons to help you in your fight, ranging from variations of assault rifles, shotguns, snipers, and so on; so there’s a nice mix of both long and short range combat, and even a few turret sections to spice things up as well. Combine this with your deadly melee attack and the added firepower achieved when you transform, and there’s certainly a fair amount of variety to the combat. And the transformations aren’t just a cheap gimmick either. Most of the time you’ll be using it to quickly travel from one location to the next, but it has its uses in combat as well, allowing you to move across the battlefield quickly and flank enemies. Each vehicle is Cybertronian so they can hover and strafe from side to side; and with the added firepower that comes from transforming into a tank, for example, it can become an excellent means of destruction as well. The combat can still get tedious towards the end, but with both campaigns lasting around four to five hours each, it’s not long enough to get truly monotonous.

And there are plenty of thrills to be had throughout each campaign with some spectacular set pieces, gargantuan boss battles and a general level of high-energy combat. It can also be pretty tough in spots, with any sustained time under enemy firepower resulting in a quick death. You definitely need to be tactically aware and cautious, though the lack of a dedicated cover system is a baffling choice. It makes some sort of sense when you consider the transformations, but with its similarities to Gears of War, and the fact allies and enemies will take cover; it’s odd that you have to make-do with manually standing behind objects to find refuge. However, if you do find yourself in a spot of bother you can always draft some friends in to help, with drop-in, drop-out co-op. Each level has three playable transformers so you can either play with friends or leave it up to the AI. The AI is poor, often running into walls, getting lost and generally being useless. With friends, it’s a lot more enjoyable, and the different classes guarantee the experience will be slightly different depending on your character choice.

There are four classes to choose from: scout, scientist, leader and soldier, and each class has its own special abilities and weapons. For instance, the scout is the speediest of the bunch, able to use stealth to get in close, while the leader supports the team with damage modifiers or shield barriers. Neither class pays much dividends in single player since the AI is too dumb to realise when you need healing (an ability of the scientist), or any other ability for that matter. But with other humans, particularly on the higher difficulty settings, you can utilize the skills of each class to effectively kill each enemy in the most sufficient manner. However, the classes definitely come into play a lot more in the multiplayer; specifically in Escalation. Here, you and three buddies must survive waves and waves of increasingly difficult enemies. You’re probably thinking of Horde, but it actually shares more similarities with Call of Duty: World at War’s Nazi Zombies than anything else. As you kill enemies you’ll earn money that can then be bought to buy ammo and health before eventually unlocking doors to new areas and new weapons. It’s an interesting dynamic that relies on teamwork as you combine your funds together and share the load. It’s also very tactical if you mix and match each of the four character classes, so you’ll begin setting up drone turrets and shields, while one member is tasked with healing the others or providing a big damage modifier when the going gets tough. It’s a lot of fun, though you’ll be gasping for a cover system by the end.

The Forgotten Sands‘ story sees the Prince return to his brother Malik’s kingdom to pay him a friendly visit. Though, unsurprisingly for the unfortunate Prince, the kingdom is under siege from a vast army hell-bent on its destruction. Malik’s plan to relinquish this new threat is to awaken a mystical army he has sealed in his palace, convinced the army will help him defeat his foes rather than oppose him. Needless to say, Malik is off the mark and the awakened army curses the land, turning everyone but Malik and the Prince into sand and unleashing a deadly swarm of sand monsters upon the kingdom. The rest of the game’s eight hours follows the two brothers as they attempt to stop this horrifying threat in the most predictable of manners. The narrative does a decent job propelling the adventure forward, but with only four characters the story is fairly slim and there’s also a big, missed opportunity to tie The Sands of Time and Warrior Withintogether. It feels disconnected from the trilogy, and without a constant female companion, the Prince loses some of his wit and charm, even if the original voice actor returns.m

e of his wit and charm, even if the o

In contrast, the basic platforming fits snugly into the trilogy’s blanket with myriad wallrunning, shimmying, leaps of faith and pole swinging. Anyone who’s ever played a Prince of Persia game before will find immediate comfort in the familiarity. In fact, it sticks so closely to the series’ blueprint that the camera will pan around each new area you enter, revealing the course through each of the intricately designed levels. However, The Forgotten Sands is less about plotting your course through each acrobatic obstacle and more about performing the requisite moves. The platforming feels a lot faster as a result, though it does remove some of the complexities of working out each navigational puzzle. But there’s reasoning behind the change in the form of the Prince’s multitude of new abilities; from solidifying streams of water, to dashing in mid-air, and creating solid surfaces out of nothing. Each ability is effortlessly implemented into the platforming to give it a fresh new look as you juggle each ability to progress through the surplus of obstacles. The Forgotten Sands is at its best when you’re switching from one ability to the next, solidifying and wallrunning across a waterfall before dashing across a large gap and landing on a previously non-existent platform. It’s all very deliberate and linear, but there are definite thrills to be had and it can get fairly tricky later on – something 2008’s Prince of Persia never did.

Disappointingly, however, the changes aren’t always enough to shake that overwhelming sense of familiarity. After three Prince of Persia games you know what to expect here, so it feels like a step back for the series rather than the type of progression a sequel to 2008’s title may have offered. It’s still enjoyable, but those last few hours do get fairly monotonous, and the laboured combat certainly doesn’t help matters. The amount of enemies on screen at any one time is impressive – with fifty or so usually littering the battlefield – but with only a select few enemy designs they eventually outstay their welcome, especially when the primary means of defeating them is by hammering on one button over and over again. You can throw in a couple of dodges and kicks, but ultimately the combat boils down to a severe case of tedious button mashing. Elemental attacks shake things up a bit, but until you’ve upgraded them fully using the skill tree, they’re largely unspectacular, doing little to unsettle the Prince’s slow and samey attacks. Even the boss battles, that were so prominent and enjoyable in 2008’s effort, are ankle mashers here as you continually bash at your sizeable opponents gargantuan feet. When the same bosses appear over a dozen times, it only compounds the misery.

Visually, The Forgotten Sands doesn’t stand up to most modern releases. The environments could do with more detailed textures, and there’s not a ton of variety in the locations with most areas of the palace looking identical besides from a few minor palette changes. The Prince himself, has an odd character design that’s hard to adjust to, especially with his lion-esque face, and there are a few constant glitches that disrupt the game’s graphical fidelity and certain areas of the gameplay, such as boss characters becoming stuck behind invisible walls. These are possibly tell-tale signs of a game rushed through development to coincide with the movies release, and that’s probably the only reason The Forgotten Sands exists.

It may not be a movie tie-in but brand synergy is definitely the aim here. As a result,Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a decent entry in the series but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. If you’re gagging for another dose of the Prince’s acrobat prowess then there’s an enjoyable, yet unspectacular, platforming aspect here with some cool ideas. It’s just disrupted by some tedious combat and shaky presentation that do little to alleviate the familiarity of a Sands of Time “side story”.

riginal voice actor returns.

To provide a basis and rationalise this over-the-top action, Split/Second is set up like a season of a reality TV show. The city, and location of all of this destruction, is actually a gigantic set created by the minds of the show, providing the structure for the myriad carnage that appears in every race. There’s no sort of outlandish Running Mansituation here, each driver is competing for the season championship with the show consisting of twelve episodes with six races in each. It’s a simple but effective setup, spreading out each race and event into bite sized chunks so you can easily go back and improve upon past results. The actual reality TV show portion doesn’t venture past its initial concept, acting as a backdrop for the action rather than any sort of narrative push. The “next time on…” videos before and after each episode are a nice touch, exemplifying the TV show premise. But they’re minimal in the grand scheme of things.

The majority of your time in Split/Second will be spent racing through this city, from the tall skyscrapers of the downtown district, to the bustling local airport, the docks and even a giant dam not too dissimilar from Hoover’s very own. There’s a nice variety to each track and most of them will intertwine within one another to create a sense of cohesion within the city. However, what makes each track memorable and fun to play are the power plays. These packages of volatile carnage are the fuel that keeps Split/Secondaccelerating. As you race you’ll fill up your power play meter by performing well, whether it be drafting behind an opponent, drifting around a tight corner or jumping over a conveniently placed ramp. Multiple actions will fill up this meter allowing you to use the environment as a lethal weapon. Split/Second will always be compared to theBurnout series because of their obvious similarities, but while Burnout is all about using your car as a weapon, Split/Second is all about the environment. As opponents move into range a target will appear and with the simple press of a button the track comes to life with explosive ferocity. Immobile cars and trucks will ignite at random, flying into the road as helicopters disperse of explosive payloads and entire buildings come crumbling down.

And they’re just the level one power plays. The meter consists of three separate bars, each one able to trigger one power play at a time. However, filling up all three will grant you the ability to unleash the grand scale devastation of the level two power plays and route changers. These will shape and deform the tracks themselves, opening up completely new paths as giant skyscrapers collapse to the ground, Boeing jets crash land right on top of you as you narrowly swoop under the wings and massive ships slide off the dock and into the water, crushing any cars unfortunate enough to be in the way. Words do not to justice to how spectacularly awesome each power play is. The sound muffles before bellowing to life as the phenomenal explosion and particle effects engulf the screen and the cacophony of the epic, techno-infused score is turned up to eleven. It’s an unadulterated attack on the senses, and the sublime framerate keeps up with the increasingly electrifying action. When you’re flying along at a hefty two-hundred miles per hour, the amount of expletive-laden amazement as you narrowly avoid an out-of-control train is unparalleled in any other genre, let alone other racers.

The problem is that the initial excitement doesn’t last forever, and the power plays eventually lose some of their edge. There’s no doubting the brilliance of seeing them for the first time and reacting to them on the fly; your first few hours with the game will be a phenomenal experience. But after you’ve seen them all, each power play becomes a strategic element rather than exhilarating eye candy. You learn to utilise specific power plays to produce the greatest effect, saving up for some of the bigger events and using them at the opportune time to wreck multiple opponents at once. It’s an evolution of play from the first few hours that goes someway to stunting the looming fear of repetition. It does eventually set in, especially later on in the career when the tracks begin to repeat themselves, but the racing mechanics are fun enough to keep things entertaining. The controls are intuitive and fairly weighty, focusing on quick movements, to avoid wrecking, and big drifting. There’s a real skill to amassing a perfect drift, and later on in the career hitting a perfect line becomes paramount to success.

Though, this is due to the rubber band AI more than anything else. Split/Second isn’t too difficult until some of the latter stages of the career, but unfair AI is a common problem throughout. It’s testament to the game’s focus on power plays that this unfair AI often occurs, since being in the lead isn’t a particularly fun experience when you can’t trigger the game’s main selling point. As a result, you’ll often find the following pack extremely close behind, often catching up six second gaps within two. Even when you know your car is much faster and you’re driving the race of your life, the AI finds a way to pass you with relative ease, performing impossibly good drifts and respawning from wrecks in the blink of an eye. Dropping from first place to fifth is such a common occurrence it would actually be quite comical if it weren’t for the frustration involved. That’s not to say Split/Second is a hard game – it’s usually pretty easy to wreck opponents with a decent power play, and you’ll normally be given ample opportunities to pass them – but the rubber band AI does cause some unwieldy races where the AI will pull ahead rather than keeping at a more realistic, surmountable distance.

Of course, these problems don’t persist once you enter the multiplayer, though this does present some of its own problems if you jump in too early. There’s no cap on the type of cars players can use, so most online races will result in a few players using the best cars in the game while the rest are in mediocre-mobiles. It’s not impossible to win, or at least finish in the top four, using a poorer vehicle, but the odds are definitely stacked against you. Most races will wind up with two or three pulling ahead while the rest of the pack are left in the dust, so it can seem very unfair and supremely frustrating. It’s probably not worth entering the multiplayer until completion of the majority of the career, so at least then you’ll have a decent arsenal of cars to choose from. Once you do, the multiplayer is an enjoyable experience that should extend the lifespan for anyone wanting to stick with Split/Second. It has the same problems as the single-player in regards to repetition, but with friends it’s suitably fun blowing each other to smithereens and progressing through the linear levelling system, even if there aren’t any rewards to gain from it.

There are also a few more game modes to try your hand at as well. Besides from a basic time-trial – which is extremely enjoyable with the addition of scripted power plays – and elimination modes, Split/Second also features three modes that feel right at home with the absurdity of the rest of the game. Air Strike and Air Revenge revolve around an evil helicopter hell bent on destroying you. You’ll need to drive fast and avoid its missile strikes to survive before Revenge lets you fire back as avoiding and drifting fills up your power play meter. Survival is just as crazy, as massive trucks unload explosive barrels into your path with points earned for overtaking. It may not have a vast amount of game modes, but the ones on offer provide a decent distraction and change of pace from the regular racing.

Though, it’s that regular racing and its penchant for power plays that will putSplit/Second on the map. It may have its problems with repetition and unfair AI, but there’s no doubting the joy to be had engaging in its phenomenal action. The power plays are an inspired concept for a racing game and they’re executed to perfection with all the Hollywood gloss you would expect from a big-budget summer popcorn movie. Forget the latest first-person shooter or action-adventure, Split/Second is the biggest action game of 2010 and it’s all witnessed at two-hundred miles per hour. It doesn’t get much more thrilling.

Lead and Gold is a third-person, team-based online multiplayer shooter, so it has a fair amount of depth for a downloadable game. There are four character classes to choose from, each utilising different weapons and special abilities. The character designs are instantly recognisable from any Western, while still veering away from being too stereotypical. They’re a lot of fun with a stylish, cartoony look, and knocking their hats off is an entertaining effect no matter how minuscule.

However, you’ll be choosing your class based on their skills rather than their appearance and choice of disposable headwear. The gunslinger is the easiest to use, touting a heavy revolver and the ability to use the fanning technique to shoot off multiple rounds in quick succession. The trapper is the sniper of the group who can also set down traps to ward off anyone sneaking in behind, or to protect an objective. The deputy uses a carbine rifle so he’s best at medium to long range, while his ability to tag enemies will help himself and his teammates. While last but not least we have the blaster, a big old brute who likes nothing more than getting up close and personal with a shotgun and a pouch of dynamite.

Finding which one works best for you is a good way to start, but you’ll want to vary your time between multiple classes to get the most enjoyment, and more importantly, help your team. Besides from certain classes working well on particular maps or in specific game modes, they also let off synergies that will affect the player and any teammates in their vicinity. Each class has its own synergy effect, so you’ll want a team with multiple classes to get a dose of each buffer. The gunslinger radiates the accuracy effect, so any teammates nearby will receive improved accuracy, while the deputy radiates the damage effect and so on. It encourages teamwork as you’ll want to stick together to best exploit these different effects. And if you’re playing well, they will eventually become more powerful, sometimes turning the battle in your teams favour.

Rather than use a persistent ranking system, Lead and Gold’s player progression only works on a match-by-match basis. It’s disappointing that you don’t feel like you’re progressing and moving up after each successive match, but within the context of the game it works fairly well. You’ll still gain ranks by playing well, but besides from bragging rights come the end of the round, ranking up will also strengthen your synergy effect. As you gain ranks your synergy will eventually become more effective, so playing well as an individual will also benefit the team.

And the maps and game modes do a good job maintaining this emphasis on team work. With names like Prospector’s Peak and Bad Blood Valley, the game’s six maps are similar to the characters with their recognisable Western traits. From a mining town, an Indian campsite, a farm, a bank and even the mines themselves, there’s a nice variety to the maps and they all look fantastic. The level design is very well balanced for each game mode the maps are used in, with multiple paths, vertical levels and buildings to occupy. The game modes are staples of any modern day shooter, starting with your typical team deathmatch through to zone control and objective destruction. There’s a game mode for everyone and the Western twists are fairly enjoyable with gold replacing flags and huge powder kegs rather than bombs. It’s often quite frantic, but the shooting mechanics are satisfying, if a little inaccurate at times.

The only real problems Lead and Gold faces are because of its net code. You’ll often be kicked back to the menu, the game may even crash on occasion and there are some issues finding enough players at times, particularly if you’re searching for specific game modes. A patch can fix all of this, but it remains to be seen whether the player count will increase or not. Though, for its budget price the gamble could be worth taking. It’s a stylish, good looking game; the shooting mechanics work well and the emphasis on teamwork, plus the variety in the maps and game modes, is very impressive. If you’re a fan of Westerns or team-based multiplayer, Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West ticks all the right boxes. It just remains to be seen how long the online community will last, especially if the network problems aren’t fixed.

This time around events are moved to Shanghai as Rios and Salem quickly find themselves caught in a large scale terrorist attack that decimates half of the breathtaking city. It’s an interesting premise, and the destruction of the city is spectacular, with explosives and aircraft knocking down some of the tallest and most impressive skyscrapers in the world. However, the story quickly takes a backseat to the action as you’re shunned into the unknown. Your antagonist doesn’t reveal himself until the very end of the game, and the only way to gauge what’s happening is to collect radio logs spread throughout each level and listen to them in the pause menu. It’s a poor way of storytelling, but the narrative is easy enough to ignore if you just want to focus on the action-heavy combat.

Though there are still some issues with the tone of the game as it once again struggles to find any sort of consistent identity. The story is fine – taking a simple, linear path with its typical action fare – but on each mission you’ll come across a few moral decisions. They seem out of place with the rest of the game, but offer certain rewards depending on your choices. For example, towards the beginning of the game you can choose to execute an ally you’ve just worked with for some extra cash from your employers, or you can let him go for free – since you’re supposed to have formed some kind of bond in the 10 minutes spent with him. If you choose the “good guy” option your reward will come later on, but for some instant gratification you’ll have to kill him then and there. It never really works as intended since you normally have more than enough cash and weapons to never need to go down the dark path, though if you choose the right path the outcome always has a negative conclusion so there’s little incentive to swing that way either. The message is clear, but it’s a flawed system, and when it brings up controversial issues like rape and child murder, it doesn’t work when the rest of the game deals with playing rock, paper, scissors and discussing how Rios has sex with endangered pandas.

Luckily this moral compass doesn’t have an effect on the gameplay since the shooting isThe 40th Day’s strongest aspect. There’s a nice range of weaponry available with pistols, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and so on. And, once again, you can customise each weapon you buy or find with a range of attachments and improvements, whether it’s swapping out new barrels and grips or adding a laser sight and silencer. There’s a hefty rate of gear in each category so customisation is high on the agenda, and in the end it all factors into the returning Aggro system. Like before, one player can attract the attention of all enemies by firing a large, loud weapon, allowing the other person to flank around the sides for some easy kills. It works well, built on teamwork between two players, or one player and the AI, though it’s not always required since you can down most enemies in one or two shots. The only exceptions are the heavies, who you’ll need to flank in order to hit the weak spot on their backsides.

It’s a competent shooter, best played with a friend. The AI does its job, earning a decent amount of kills and generally staying out of your line of sight, but it does have its flaws. Oftentimes when you’ve gone down he’ll drag you into the open before trying to heal you so there are some unnecessary deaths. And I found that sometimes he’d wonder into the open himself and get killed even when ordered to hold his position. You see, you can give him three specific orders, to regroup, advance and hold position. For each of these you can also render him passive or aggressive, tying into the Aggro meter. It’s easy enough to make him advance or hold his position on aggressive, allowing you to flank the enemy positions with a silenced weapon, virtually unseen, while he gets all the attention. It works well and is probably the best way to play with the AI.

The downside is you’ll be performing this manoeuvre over and over again throughout the campaign’s short five hour runtime. There’s no real variation to any of The 40th Day’s seven missions; each one funnels you down a linear path as you engage in one shooting gallery after another. It looks good, particularly in the character models, but past the opening destruction of Shanghai the rest of the missions look like any old war-torn environment with the zoo being the only exception. When there’s no variety to the gameplay, and relatively little inspiration in the environments, it begins to get repetitive way before the miniscule five hours are up.

It’s just a shame that the solid fundamentals laid out by the original Army of Twocouldn’t be built on in this sequel. The story is an improvement only in its “less is more” execution, but the gameplay has remained mostly the same with no improvements to the systems already put in place or the design of its missions. It gets far too repetitive far too quickly so Army of Two: The 40th Day should be viewed as a rental at best. With a friend it can be fun for a while, but anything else and it outstays its welcome.

The boys of B-Company are back yet again, though Bad Company 2 is a much more serious tale than its predecessor’s Three Kings style hunt for gold. A mysterious WMD has fallen into the enemy’s hands and Sarge, Sweetwater, Haggard and Marlowe have been drafted into a special-ops unit to help put a stop to this weapon and the threat it poses to the US. It’s a fairly simple military tale more in tune with any number of recent modern shooters than the more novel concept of the first game. You can expect plenty of Generation Kill lingo, large set pieces and obvious plot twists as you head for the anticlimactic ending. It’s not great but it serves its purpose, moving events from Alaska to Bolivia and beyond as B-Company traverse the globe with the simple objective of stopping this super weapon.

However, what Bad Company 2’s narrative may lack in originality and intrigue it more than makes up for with its returning characters. These are real, living, breathing people with more personality than the protagonists of any other shooter on the market. They may not be the most complex bunch, but in this war-torn scenario there’s no group I’d rather spend more time with than B-Company and all of their flaws, humour and daft political comments. Whether they’re discussing their favourite scene from Predator, pondering why Afro-American’s call 50 Cent “Fiddy” instead of “Fifty” or taking a friendly dig at Modern Warfare 2 (“Snowmobiles are for pussies”), the dialogue always feels completely natural and consistently hits the right comedic notes. It certainly keeps the downtime entertaining and ends up being a highlight of the six hour campaign as you get to know this rag-tag bunch of regular Joe’s (albeit one’s with exceptional military talents) as they’re thrust into an unimaginable situation.

The rest of the single player campaign is fairly uneven, starting off slowly before eventually opening up and picking up the pace during the last few hours. You’ll fight your way through many different locales, most notably freezing cold mountains, dense jungles and expansive desert towns. The art design in each is sublime, showcasing some awe inspiring vistas reaching as far as the eye can see, while the weather and surrounding environment can also cause distractions you’ll need to adapt to. From snow obscuring your vision and sand being swept up and covering enemies in its murky browns and golds, the climate and visuals actually have an important effect on the gameplay. However, Bad Company 2 doesn’t have the same sort of scale as the first game, instead funnelling players down a fairly linear path in order to extort even more grandiose set pieces. It works well for the most part and there’s definitely some leeway to tackle situations from multiple angles, but if you enjoyed the large scale environments from the first game you may be a little disappointed that they rarely show up here. It can also be pretty tough in places, so you’ll normally end up relying on rote enemy placement memorisation to get through particular areas. The rest of B-Company are always with you along the way, and while the AI does a good job of keeping up with the action and looking busy, they’ll rarely ever kill anybody, leaving you to deal with the waves upon waves of rushing enemies. It’s not a large issue but it’d be nice to get some help every now and then.

But despite the single player’s flaws the shooting mechanics are tight, intuitive and enjoyable enough to keep the campaign engaging as you begin collecting more and more weaponry for your arsenal. Bad Company 2 loves its guns so much that finding them all will unlock rewards and Achievements, skipping past something like hidden Intel in favour of encouraging you to seek out and find the good stuff. There are tons of distinct assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, light machine guns and so on, with different variations of certain guns and multiple attachments for each. The majority of the weapons are fantastic fun to use and you can start each mission with a different loadout to customise the game to the way you want to play. Each gun and weapon type has a significant feel, and when fighting across long distances you even have to consider gravity in the equation. There’s nothing more rewarding than sniping someone from one hundred metres away with a perfect headshot, the bullet dipping downwards as it reaches the target. The single player may be fairly lacklustre at times but the shooting mechanics are second to none so you won’t mind too much.

Plus, most of those added weapon attachments, like grenade launchers, offer a multitude of additional explosive action. Like its predecessor, Bad Company 2’s main pull will always be its destruction, and this time around it’s been improved upon. Destruction 2.0 is the name, and while it doesn’t really change too much you can certainly marvel at its technical wizardry. Before, a grenade launcher would blow a hole in any sort of scenery, usually to expose a group of enemies holed up in a house, create a new path through a level or make you highly cautious of your surroundings and cover. In Bad Company 2 that same effect still takes place, but blow up enough walls and the foundations will begin to crumble as the whole structure comes crashing down. It’s never really utilised since it takes time and ends up being easier to just shoot the enemy, but once you’re in the driving seat of a tank or flying one of the explosive UAVs, it can become a useful and enjoyable tactic, both in your hands and the enemy’s as your cover is literally blown away.

And this carries over to the extensive multiplayer package. Conquest is on the agenda, as usual, with two teams vying for control of three bases spread across the map. Rush makes a return from the first Bad Company (then called gold rush) that has two teams taking it in turns to attack and defend targets, while squad rush sees a smaller version of it and squad deathmatch rounds things out. Maps vary in location not too dissimilar from those seen in the single player campaign, meaning you’ll need to deal with the same kind of weather and particle effects. Add to this dynamic geometry and terrain, dense foliage, multiple destructible structures and expertly positioned objectives and you have some of the most finely balanced and varied maps available. Not to mention their spectacular scale, often stretching far and wide to provide some of the most open and tactical battles rarely seen in multiplayer shooters.

Some are suited to the plethora of vehicles on offer with tanks, jeeps, armoured trucks, the powerful but extremely-hard-to-control helicopters and even zippy quad bikes, but most of the time you’ll be on foot utilizing various classes and squad tactics. Each class, be it assault, engineer, medic or recon, comes with its own set of weapons, gadgets and specialisations. Performing well and earning points in Bad Company 2’s progressive ranking system will unlock certain gadgets, ranging from gun attachments like smoke grenades, more powerful RPGs and C4, to the more squad friendly medi-packs, defibrillators and ammo boxes. Meanwhile, specialisations focus on scopes for your weapons, extra body armour, grenade vests or extra ammunition and vehicular improvements among others. The ranking system is as terrific as ever, constantly rewarding the player with new weapons and items, and the customisation available for each class is significant, allowing you to build up each class with particular strengths far reaching the most apparent.

However, Bad Company 2’s most defining feature is its tactical awareness and focus on teamwork. If you want to win you’ll need to be a team player, working together to earn kills and attack and defend objectives. Even if you’re just a recon, sitting back and sniping, you can help the team – besides the obvious killing – by “spotting” enemies so that they appear on the radar and screen for your whole squad to see. This can be done with any class at any time, so if you don’t think you can get the kill you can hit a button and you’ve successfully pinpointed an enemy, making him a far easier target for the rest of your team. Then, of course, you have the medics who can drop health for people; the assault class can drop ammo and the engineer who fixes vehicles on the move. There’s nothing more exciting than defending a structure with your whole team working in tandem, “spotting” enemies for each other, resupplying and healing, and even bringing them back to life. These moments may depend on who you’re playing with, but so far the community seems especially adept at dealing with all of the nuances of Bad Company 2’s multiplayer.

Although if you’re new to the series it may be a tough introduction. The single player campaign has a fairly generous aim assist that is absent from the multiplayer, and the game doesn’t do a particularly good job of teaching you the ropes. Attempting to pilot the helicopters without training is suicide and basic skills that you might not know even existed are never revealed. It’s only a slight flaw, but if this is your first Battlefield and you’re looking to go online you may want to scour the internet for any tips before entering the battle.

If you do decide to jump in prepare to be amazed by the spectacular sound. Each and every weapon sounds sublime with the noise changing depending on your position. Fire across a large distance in an open space and it will reflect that; fire in a tight corridor at close range and the acoustics will adapt perfectly. Explosions sound different depending how far or close your proximity is, muffling from close range and deafening as your ears start ringing. Battle chatter is exceptional in single player and multiplayer as your squad communicate, signalling out enemies and adding their own unique chatter to give everything a natural feel. War is Hell and Bad Company 2 does as good a job as any reflecting that in its sound design. You know when it’s time to cover as bullets whizz past your ear and a tank blows apart a house, the broken brinks crumbling all around as injured teammates go down in agony.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 thrives on these moments of war-torn chaos. Its brand of epic, large scale, squad based multiplayer is rarely seen on consoles, taking what was great about the original Bad Company and Battlefield 1943 and refining it with a substantial amount of engaging game types and phenomenal map design to create one of the best multiplayer experience available. The single player is a bit of a letdown as it’s obvious DICE spent the majority of their time working on the online, but the core gameplay is enjoyable enough and the characters memorable enough that it’s worth one playthrough, at least. The overall package might not topple Modern Warfare 2’s throne, but the multiplayer might have just surpassed it. Competition is always healthy.